Amazon knows a lot about retail, but that’s knowledge is mostly confined to the online world right now. Reports indicate that the company is working on a new initiative that would see it expand its presence into brick-and-mortar retail, but not in the way you might expect. Amazon is working on a plan to get Kindle tablets in the hands of retailers to use as point-of-sale devices.

Retailers would be able to use the devices to take traditional credit card payments with an attachment, but Amazon might also seek to tie the system into an Amazon mobile wallet solution using one-click. It already has a lot of credit card numbers already on file — certainly more than most of the competition. Larger retailers are essentially competing directly with Amazon, so uptake of this program would likely be poor, so Amazon is said to be focusing on small businesses as it develops the plan.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire HDX tablets launched last year with impressive specs and a slim design. These Android-powered slates don’t run any of Google’s services and the UI has been modified to promote Amazon’s services. It would be trivial to create a POS interface on top of the already heavily customized software.

Amazon makes its money selling things, so why would it want to help other people make sales? It’s all about the data. Amazon uses browsing and buying habits to suggest products and analyze trends on its website, and having access to data from real world stores could improve its predictions. If Amazon could leverage its large number of consumer accounts and connect an individual’s Amazon profiles with brick-and-mortar retail purchases, it could potentially offer a super-specialized experience.